Metal Grappler guide

Metal Grapplers

Metal Grapplers are considered the powerhouses of CRA. Interestingly, they are only marginally stronger than other robos. Their defense, however, is nearly unrivaled.

High defense and endurance, below average ground mobility, but a good, long airdash gives decent agility. Bear in mind that there is only one airdash, so actual positioning with it can be quite a task.

Metal Grapplers, unlike most other robos, should spend minimal time in the air; their strong ground defense would go to waste otherwise.

Tier list

This is the tier list for Metal Grapplers. Just because one is on the bottom doesn't mean that it's useless; it means it may take more skill to use, or may only accomplish certain tasks, lacking all around capabilities.

Metal Ape
Rock Hound
Crazy Baboon

Rock Hound rates higher than Crazy Baboon only if you can effectively utilize the charge. Otherwise reverse Rock Hound and Crazy Baboon. I strongly suggest you to try your set out with all of these, and don't just pick the 'best'.

Movement
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I said before that Metal Grapplers are best when on the ground. Thus, ground movement should be the prevailing form.

For those curious about the exact distance, (I find this rather pointless information, as it really doesn't provide any help during the battle itself. Knowing an effective estimation that you can measure against areas is much more useful. Sadly, is also only comes with practice.) they move 75 inches, which is about a third longer than a Shining Fighter.

To get started on movement, let's examine a few sets:

Metal Ape
Meteor Fall
Crescent C
Diving (GameFAQs censor again. >_>)
Ground

This is a set that is mainly associated with Rockylight; whether or not it's actually his, part for part, I don't know.

When using this, the slide shot is the most prevalent technique. Though Metal Ape has low ground speed, using a slide shot still makes it hard to hit with any weapon. The Meteor rounds that are constantly falling also help cover you.

So, movement is mainly based on the slide shot here. Why? Because Metal Grapplers base their attacks and defense around constant cover fire. Anyone with military or law enforcement experience knows that the enemy will not be likely to fire his/her weapon if they would have to get shot because of it. The same concept applies here, and even if they do try to hit you, your weapons will counter them easily.

A competent player will be able to use lagless weapons like pods to interrupt your fire. That's when the airdash comes into play.

A Metal Grappler has a fast, lengthy airdash. It is very effective for escaping, much more so than walking or slide shotting. When your weapons fail to stop advances, retreat and try again.

The downside of the dash is surprisingly the length of it; it is much less useful than a number of shorter airdashes, as a long one is hard to control. Be wary of any bombs or pods that you could dash into, as there is no stopping an airdash once started.

Ground movement

Ground movement will be the main source of maneuvering. Their ground speed is very low, so you'll have to learn how to accommodate that as well.

I see Metal Grapplers as mainly defensive powerhouses. Here's one of my sets:

Metal Ape
Homing Star
Acrobat
Wall
Ground

With this set, I mainly use gun spam to distance my opponent, and use the Wall pod if they manage to close in on me. When I get myself into position for spamming my gun, I simply walk. It's not necessary to always be in the air, and in most cases it's better for a Metal Grappler to be on the ground.

The reason ground movement is so important here is because your opponent shouldn't be able to get near to you; your set and the robos high defense should make it hard for them to get a hit in, without being downed themselves. I'll talk a bit more about this later on.

One more set before we move on:

Metal Ape
Needle
Crescent P
Umbrella
Ground

This set is a bit different than the other two; the gun isn't as spammable with poor running speed and bad aerial abilities. In this case, you have to change your style a bit.

Also unlike the others, is the fact that it's a combo set. (Little tip here: a set with the Needle gun will always have a strong or easy combo, if it's used by a competent player).

Using this set, the player would have to work quickly to get in position with the Needle gun, while still keeping the enemy at bay. That means the airdash will come into play much more.

Even though airdashing is more necessary, the ground shot of all weapons should be the one used most often. That means that you'll have to work to dash to the area, and then quickly land to take advantage of whatever vantage point it may be.

Remember, Metal Grapplers high defense and endurance can outlast almost any robo, so don't worry as much about taking a hit or two; if it's necessary to land your combo, it's worth it, because of how hard Grapplers hit.

Legs

The reason why these guides are given a separate section for legs is because they are the most important part in the smooth running of a set. Any other part can, is some way, be given a task that won't harm the set, but picking the wrong set of legs can actually ruin a set. If I changed the legs on my Amy set to something else, it wouldn't at all.

Metal Grapplers have a bit more space to choose legs, but I still think that Ground Legs always come out on top.

These are the main choices:

~Ground legs
~Plus One legs
~Long Thrust legs
~Wide Jump legs

Ground legs destroy landing lag and lower jump height, which lets you get to a location and start fighting as fast as possible. My personal favorite.

Plus One legs allow for either more distance or better agility. Ground seems to do this better. The one thing that is worth noting about these is that they allow you to dash out over lava, and then dash back to safety. Quite useful in certain situations, but don't expect those to arise very often. Still worth noting, though.

Long Thrust legs let you go crazy distances, but hurt your maneuverability even more. Can be useful on very large stages, but you have to be careful of the landing lag, because of the predictable landing that can be easily exploited.

Wide Jump legs are actually more useful than one might think. They don't do anything to your dash, but they make your actual jump much stronger, which can help great deals with mobility.

In most cases, ground legs will be the best choice, but I can think of one situation and set that would benefit from each of these:

Rock Hound
Sniper
Wall
Diving
Wide Jump

The increase in jump ability from the legs allows you to jump backwards quickly and land a successful Sniper hit.

Crazy Baboon
Glider
Standard
Throwing P
Long Thrust

Long Thrust allows you to dash a long distance away, and pop off a Glider shot. It's useful because Glider has to spread out to the sides, and then come around.

Metal Ape
V-Laser
Charge
Throwing P
Plus One

When used on a lava stage, you can spam the gun, and then escape out over the lava, fire a bomb, and then dash back to safety. Hard to use, but it's really satisfying when you pull it off.

Offense

Most Metal Grappler sets use a mixture of offensive and defensive tactics; they tend to try to stay at a distance, but they also go on the offensive through the use of very powerful weaponry.

Refer back to the first set I mentioned:

Metal Ape
Meteor Fall
Crescent C
Diving (Censor. So annoying. -_-;)
Ground

This set is designed to stay at a range, and it does that not through complex maneuvering like a Little Sprinter set might, but through the shear power of all the rounds it fires off. Trust me here: this set will cause you to rethink all the tactics you use on your sets right now, because you have to be so careful not to get slammed by the constantly fired rounds. Be very wary around this set.

But what about offense based solely on....offense? Here's one:

Rock Hound
Splash
Smash
Wall
Ground

This is a hard set to use. It's used on Battlefield: Tomorrow; otherwise, hitting with the gun would be nigh on impossible.

Dash around firing aerial Splash shots (increased range and speed) until you chase them behind one of the back walls. Once there, land, throw a pod to the side, launch the bomb, and close in from the last remaining opening. Fire the gun and activate the combo. Absolutely devastating.

The reason I recommend using the standard mixture of defensive range but offensive weapon style is simply this: you will find it immensely hard to correctly use a completely offensive set effectively right off the bat.

But I'm not going to just leave it at that; this needs a good section on offensive tactics. (Bear in mind I'm not the best with Metal Grapplers).

Just like any other MG set, this should be based around constant fire. Use bombs with large blasts and pods that stay on the field for a long time; this makes it very hard to dodge effectively.

With all their efforts on dodging, approaching should be easier. What you should NOT do is fire all your weapons and expect it to confuse them right off. Maybe it'd work on a noob, but don't expect for it to work anywhere else. You have to be patient and allow time for the confusion and tediousness of it to build up: then you strike.

This set is a good example of that:

Metal Ape
Magnum
Charge
Satellite
Ground

Spread the pods around, then fully charge a bomb; throw it to one side of the enemy, then start spamming the ground shot of the bomb. Rinse and repeat. After a while, the amount of things to dodge should cause them to move closer to you. When that happens, you have your chance; DO NOT HESITATE. IT'S BETTER TO TAKE A LITTLE DAMAGE THAN TO LOSE A CHANCE BECAUSE YOU WAITED.

Be patient with it; this a very slow paced game, so don't expect to have all your battles be quick and easy.

Defense

Defense is how I play. Actually, no, that's not entirely true; I play defensively until you screw up, then I destroy you. When playing me, it's better to focus on playing your defensive game perfectly than actually trying to rush me.

A defensive playstyle can be like that ^, or it can be entirely defensive. That's how limxzero plays; he doesn't waste much time trying to knock off large amounts of HP, he just wears your dodging abilities down until you die.

When playing a completely defensive game, your set will look something like this:

Metal Ape
Eagle
Acrobat
Spider
Ground

No heavy combo. No really high levels of all weapon spam. Just flat out evasion. Acrobat bomb is the friend of the evader. It's also the friend of an offensive player, but not quite as much.

Don't let your guard down; instead of firing lots of weapons, focus on avoiding anything thrown at you. Your number one priority should be moving. Never stop moving. If the opportunity presents itself, take it and launch an attack. But if it backfires, don't press it; just get out and try again.

Metal Grapplers probably rank around third or fourth on the defensive tier list.

Aerial Beauties
Big Boys
Metal Grapplers/Burning Beasts

They are even more effective against grounded enemies, because there will be less distance for the gun rounds or bombs to move to make contact, making those annoying little lagging Raiders easier to take down.

If up against an aerial stall set, you're most likely screwed. Yeah, sorry, but you don't stand much of a chance. Unless you thought to pack your Smash Bomb.

Metal Ape
Eagle Gun
Smash Bomb
Acrobat Pod
Ground Legs

You can acro hax the eagle rounds, but you can dash in and counter the aerial with your bomb. This is my favorite MG stall set, except I use the Glider gun.

Aerial stall sets beat you in stall abilities because you're stuck grounded, and present a huge target. Acro weapons help negate both those problems.

1.) They allow you to gain height.
2.) They cause a bit of lag.

The advantage of number one is obvious, but number two might not be. I'll explain.

Lag=evasion. For example, a Little Raider with Stabilizer legs moving in a 'z' or 's' formation causes there to be large amounts of data to transfer quickly. The games aren't built to handle this, so you appear to warp as you move.

Other robos do this to a lesser extent, but quickly moving into the air causes slight amounts of lag. This can sometimes be even more effective because you don't actually see it happening, so predicting where they'll be will be even harder.

MGs also have a fast falling speed, so the can ascend, then quickly fall; this will foil most homing rounds.

Tips, tricks and techniques

Metal Grapplers have low DOWN time on top of their high defense and endurance, so if you get caught in a combo, try to down yourself with an acrobat weapon to gain that short period of damage buffering, and then the rebirth time.

I said earlier that Metal Grapplers fall fast. This is very useful with acrobat weapons. You can acro hax your gun, fall quickly, and repeat. Very good technique for high powered, but high lag weapons, such as Dragon, Glider or Homing Star.

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